French ecommerce: €112.2 billion in 2020

The ecommerce sector in France generated 112.2 billion euros in 2020. Compared to 2019, internet sales grew by 8.5 percent. This growth was not homogenous across all products, as the sales of services were hit hard due to the pandemic.

Just like in the rest of Europe, French ecommerce was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020. Fevad, Ecommerce Europe’s French national association presented key figures in French ecommerce for the year 2020 in a report.

The sector still managed to grow 8.5 percent compared to 2019. Compared to the previous four years, internet sales grew an average of 13 percent a year.  This growth is largely due to a sharp increase of sales in goods (32 percent), while online sales of services decreased with 10 percent. The sharp drop in tourism, transport and leisure sales made up 41 percent of that decrease.

French ecommerce generated 112.2 billion euros

Of all retail trade in goods in 2020, ecommerce made up 13.1 percent of it. While ecommerce generated 112.2 billion euros, sales of online goods amounted to 60.6 billion euros. This was an increase of 3.3 percent compared to 2019 and the usual average of 0.7 percent a year. Especially non-food sectors were able to maintain some of their activity during lockdowns thanks to internet sales.

41.6 million French people buy online

According to the study, 41.6 million French people buy online, a 81.4 percent of all internet users in the country. This is 1.5 million more compared to 2019. And 41.4 percent of buyers make purchases from their mobile phone.

When French consumers couldn’t buy every category in stores, they found them online. This lead to an average transaction amount of 61 euros, an increase of 2.6 percent compared to the average in 2019. This is the first increase after eight consecutive years of decline.

First increase of average transaction amount after 8 years.

Many retailers increased their digitalization during 2020 to offer consumers the possibility to keep buying. Consumers are now in favor of this omnichannel approach by retailers, including their local shops. It seems that French consumers who made their way online during lockdowns will keep buying online. In France, 52 percent of shops that sell online are growing, compared to 39 percent of shops that only operate offline.